Crimea Secedes, Russia Succeeds, Ukraine Pleads, America Won’t Lead

The last week or so has seen an acceleration of events between Russia, Crimea, and Ukraine which seemingly could spiral anywhere.

Russian-occupied Crimea voted the other day to secede — I’m not sure how “legal” the vote was until one thinks, of course, that there is no such thing as international law, just international norms that major powers enforce on occasion. Also, spontaneous secessionist movements are kind of unpredictable I suppose — one can’t blame Ukraine for being pissed.

Then earlier today, Russia decides that independent Crimea should really be Russian and annexed the peninsula. Granted, Khrushchev was the one who ceded Crimea to Ukraine from Russia in the 1950s. Russia’s just looking to get its old Reich territories back.

The truth is that these 3am phone call situations will be blundered by the Obama team, either on purpose or from sheer lack of strategic thought. So as Crimea secedes from Ukraine, while Russia succeeds in gobbling up territory, and the Ukraine prepares for war, the United States can’t seem to get its act together. Perhaps that’s why Putin is doing this in the first place — what are we going to do? What would we do? What are we doing? If I were Putin, why stop here — as they say, ownership is 90% possession.